Hot Potato

"Ow, ow, ow!"

A young girl's cry resonates in the kitchen, eventually leaking into the living room where a man and a woman are sitting at a dining table, discussing the activity in the kitchen. There is a big smile on the man's face, and a tiny frown on the woman's. The man opens his mouth.

"Are you sure you want her to cook? You might actually have to cook another meal!" The man said in jest, with a hidden message of concern for the girl in the kitchen, and for the both of them.

"I can hear you from here, dad! Ow!" The voice from the kitchen sounds again, with a hint of frustration in it this time. The man imagines the face of the girl in the kitchen. She's probably making a nasty face right now, isn't she?

"Sorry, sorry. You better focus on the meal now. Don't hurt yourself too much!" The man makes a reply and goes back to talk to the woman sitting across him, who is smiling a little now, but the look of worry is still evident in her eyes.

"Farah's still a kid, Dave. That's exactly why I had her do it by herself. She's already helped me cook enough, she's definitely able to. The only thing holding her back now is herself.

She needs to recall the processes and compile it into a whole meal independently, she'd learn to be self-sufficient that way, and being a mage needs that, self-sufficiency." The woman said with a prepared response, as she asked herself the very same question when she issued the punishment. A punishment and a lesson, what a deal.

"How cunning! Let me go over to give my cunning wife some love."

"Not when Farah's here!" Barbara shows signs of resistance and bashfulness as David gets closer and closer. When David hugged her, she was red as a tomato. Her arms were flailing around when her husband kissed her, but eventually, she lets go and hugs him back.

"Love you, babe."

"...Love, love you too... Now let go of me! I'll go check on Farah!" Barbara gets flustered and pushes her husband off her lap and storms off towards the kitchen while David watches her back lovingly.

"H- hey, how's it going? What are you making?" Barbara emerges from the door, still slightly flushed. She sees a little girl trying to cut something, but whenever she reaches for it, she retracts her left hand and put it in her mouth.

"Ow! Ah, mom, what did you say?" Farah turns back to talk to her mother. Her hands red, and her eyes teary.

"You look terrible, what are you doing? Is there any problem?" Barbara walks closer and takes her daughter's hands to inspect. They're warm, ...and wet from the saliva. She glances to the cutting board to see the cause, and she finds a partially cut potato, she looked to the stove and saw a still-steaming pot. Once she sees it, she immediately understands what's happening based on the clues. Farah is burning her hands trying to cut a boiling hot potato.

"Ah, I wanted to-" When Farah was about to answer, she sees her mother walk to the cupboard and looked into it.

In the cupboard, there was various types of meat, preserved by Carter's magic, fresh vegetables, some herbal plants, and jars of various things from alcohol all the way to salt. After searching for a while, Barbara takes out a pair of aloe vera leaves.

"Take these first, they'll help heal your burns." Farah feels coolness entering her hands, or rather heat exiting if she's being scientifically accurate, as her mother peels and puts the leaves in her hands. She then sees her mother nod for her to continue speaking once she's finished wrapping the leaves around her hands.

"I'm making mashed potatoes but cutting it has been really hard since it's so hot. I've already waited for a while for it to cool down, but it's still really hot! Did I miss any step?" Farah hopes her explanation is sufficient. Meanwhile, she thinks of how she can solve the problem and move on to do other dishes she has planned.

"You boiled the potato before you cut it, that's going to make it hard to cool and the core won't be cooked either. Let me fix that." Barbara takes the knife and cuts the potato into smaller pieces and instructs Farah to put it back in the pot.

'She screwed the first step up. Seriously? I had her help me plenty of times... Must be the nervousness. Better make her repeat all the steps so she calms down a little. Heh, maybe she'll get that wrong too! I'll be able to correct her before she makes a mistake like that, though.

Yeah, I better do that. She better not screw up this time.' As Barbara thought to herself, Farah successfully reignites the stove and stares blankly at the pot.

"Hey! Why are you staring at it like that? It won't be done faster. Go do things that don't need the stove. Tell me, what do you need to do? For the other dishes too. You don't plan on only making mashed potatoes, do you?"

Farah snaps back into reality. She quickly remembers what she needs to do and list them all to her mother. She makes some mistakes, but they're corrected. After she's done explaining, her mother encourages her and gives her a hint:

"Time management is key. You should always be doing something. Remember the times you had to help me cook."

As she watches her mother's back, Farah ponders what her mother could possibly mean.

'Time management... I should always be doing something... Times I helped mom cook... When mom cooks, she's always doing something like what she said in the second sentence... Should I do multiple steps at the same time? No, that's not possible... Or is it?

I could use the cutting board to cut some meat for another dish while I wait for potato to boil. But the potato will overcook...

I know, I should choose what steps to do at the same time, and time it properly so I don't overcook things. That's got to be it, it fits all three. It saves time, I would always be busy, it's also what she does when she cooks.'

Farah then proceeded according to plan. Of course, she occasionally ran into problems, the omelet broke into pieces when she tried to flip it, the patty broke into pieces once it was cooked, and the mashed potato tasted bland.

At first, she panicked, trying to scoop everything together hoping the pieces would be glued together by the still-raw part of the egg once it's cooked. She ended up scrambling it all. That's when Farah realizes,

'I could just turn a failed dish into a different dish!' She does the same with the patty. As for the mashed potato, simply seasoning it more works.

Finally, the meal is done. Farah presents her finished products. They were mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and stir-fried minced meat.

"I have to never let them know I meant to make omelets and meat patties."

"Hm? What did you say?" David heard what Farah mumbled under her breath clearly, but he wanted to tease his daughter a little.

"Nothing!" Farah jumps like a spooked dog and replies in a high-pitched voice, causing her father to giggle.

Meanwhile, Barbara is completely focused on the meal. She analyzes the shapes, the colors, the smells, the textures of the dishes, a skill she honed as an archer. She spots that the eggs and the meat are cooked unevenly, and so she arrives at the same conclusion as her husband. She, however, doesn't hold back just to tease her daughter. Cooking is serious business. "These two dishes didn't come out in their intended forms, did they?"

"E- Eh?! How did you- ...No, they didn't..." Farah is wide-eyed. 'How did mom find out? Is it that obvious? No, dad didn't see it... Can only mom see it because she's good at cooking? Still, she found out! That's bad!'

"Sit down first, she's going to give your food a taste and go on a tangent." David says teasingly and gestures for Farah to sit. Barbara shoots him a gaze, but she remains silent until Farah is seated. David thinks to himself when he sees his wife's look. 'Damn, she's killing me later.'

"This mashed potato is unevenly seasoned, and coarse. You should mash it more thoroughly next time. There's also lumps of it, like this. This means it's not cooked evenly. You should put in the potato before you turn on the stove, got it? This way, the heat will be able to make its way inside before the outer layer is completely cooked.

Now, onto the minced meat. The patty broke, yeah? There are multiple reasons, the first being your meat being warm. You need to chill it in the basement for a while first so it's not too moist. There's also the things you add to your patty..."

As Barbara goes on, Farah struggles to keep up trying to note the details in her notebook. David sees this, and signals Barbara to slow down. However, Barbara does not slow down. Instead, she began to teach Farah another lesson.

"Notes are just for triggering your memories on the matter, only note the important parts unless you're not sure you can remember it. Anyway, about the seasoning for the meat..."

Farah was surprised by her mother's words, but she had no time to doubt it or contemplate so she followed the advice, only noting the important parts. She can pay more attention to what her mother is actually saying now that she only notes one major detail for each.

Barbara's lecture continues for about ten minutes when suddenly,

Krrrrrkkkkk!

Somebody's stomach growled.

Barbara suddenly stopped, realizing she had spoken for a long time. She decides to wrap it up and starts speaking again after a brief pause, ending the lesson in about a minute. As she was finishing up, she sees David looking at a tomato, no, Farah. And since she's already done being serious, it's time to join in on the fun.

"Did we have an earthquake earlier? I was scared stiff! Let's eat to forget about it."

"Hahaha, I agree! Let's eat to forget about it!"

"L- Let's eat... uuu...."

As the meal goes on, the family talks about the happenings in the village and gossips as usual. It was then, that Barbara remembers an amusing piece of news and brings it up.

"Did you know that the creepy pastor, uh, Uncle Uriah is actually hiding from someone here?" Farah was surprised by this piece of news; her father was right! Farah immediately turns to her father when she heard this and uttered in disbelief,

"Really?!"

"Yeah, come give me a big hug for being right. Over here." David opens his arms, readying himself to receive Farah's impact. He knows she'll jump into him. He knows she'll hit him in the stomach with her head. He knows it'll hurt, but he still asked for it. Because he loves his daughter and wants to hug her.

"Hehe, dad is so smart!" Farah snuggles into her father's arms and enjoys the patting.

Seeing how her daughter and her husband are acting, Barbara sighs, incurring their laughter. She sighs once again and continues her story while Farah walks back to her seat.

"Well, sigh, anyways, since he's being chased, he's going to train us all in combat so we could help him when the time eventually comes. Of course, we are already strong, so we felt really insulted, right? Dave?"

"Mmph? Gulp, ah, yeah, yeah, totally. We are good fighters already; how dare he offer to teach us?! Something like that. Uh, babe, you want to continue?" David expresses what he thought in the moment that the event happened. He was a mercenary, and his wife was a soldier! Veterans of the Reinon army! Everybody knows how tough the training is in there. They even train the mercenaries...

"Yeah, I will. So, Uriah reveals his secret, he's a crusader from Shuz, and that he's going to teach us uh, ho- holy... combat... Sorry, I just can't say it. Let's just say he's teaching us body enhancement! That's why he's sooo good at combat!" Barbara speaks excitedly, though she stumbles when she has to mention religion, and frowns slightly when she mentions Uriah.

"Body enhancement?"

"Yeah, body enhancement. Mom and dad are going to learn body enhancement!"

"What's... body enhancement?" When Farah's asked the question, Barbara froze. 'I've never taught Farah about body enhancement? How?'

As Barbara regains clarity, her husband had already begun to explain to her daughter what body enhancement is.

"It's uhh, Farah, have you heard of Prana?"

"Nope!"

"This will be a pain... I'm not good at theories too... So basically, it's like, like when you eat a lot the day before and have a lot of energy, but times ten! You do this training and store energy or whatever and become a lot stronger than normal when you decide to use it. Well, that's how I understand it." David tries to explain in relatable and simple terms, worried that his daughter would not understand it, because he only understands it in a very instinctual way himself.

"Sigh, Dave... Farah, forget what dad said and listen to me. The way he said it, you'd only understand it correctly if you already know what it is!" Barbara calls for the confused Farah and looks her in the eyes, preparing to lecture her for the second time this meal.

"What's that supposed to mean?! I'm going to get you for this..." David speaks with vengeance in his words, but not in his voice or face, he's even chuckling lightly. It's safe to assume he's joking and is going to "get his wife" in bed.

"Farah, imagine a rubber band. When you stretch it, it can only go so far, right? So, what could you do to get the rubber band to stretch more?"

"Uh, I can make it bigger?"

"Correct, that is one of the methods. You can also increase its elasticity, or tie it to more rubber bands, et cetera. If you change the rubber band to humans, and stretching it to fighting, the methods of making the rubber band bigger and all the other ones are equivalent to body enhancement!

Body enhancement is when you enhance some aspects of your body with the goal of winning a fight. Of course, like the rubber band, there are also many methods for body enhancement. The one mom and dad are learning from Uriah is to preserve the energy used in daily life and use it at important moments in fights.

I don't know how I'd do it since he hasn't taught us how to yet, just what it is. But this method probably won't interfere with other methods because those permanently change your physique, unlike this one where you just "save up energy". Who knows, maybe mom and dad will learn some other body enhancement method some day!" Barbara taught her daughter what she knew all in one go, since she doesn't know much yet. After this, Farah only asked some trivial questions about body enhancement and Barbara went back to gossiping about Uriah.

"I think he actually ran away from the church! Why else would he come all the way over here, even crossing the great lake?" As Barbara proposed her hypothesis, David proposes one of his own.

"No, no. He's super religious, no? He must be running from some kind of... evil cult!" It seems David did not learn his lesson, outright dismissing his wife's idea again. Of course, this time, he had to make up to her in the same way once more, and he promises to himself, 'I'm never making this mistake ever again!'

Eventually, the family was done with their breakfast, and it was time to go to the market to stock up. As they walked around the market, David sighed and muttered out loud,

"This is probably the last time we'll all be hanging out together for a while...."

"Don't act all sentimental. You're ruining the mood." Barbara thought the same as her husband, but she doesn't dare say it. She wants to enjoy the moment as much as possible and not concern the others with such matters.

"Hm? What did you two talk about? I was looking at the vegetable stand over there, the brothers are bickering again." Farah points to Francis and Frederick, who are arguing over the matter of where the dividing line between their responsibilities lie.

"Didn't we agree on this already?! The line is the broccoli, with the broccoli on my side!" Francis shouts out and points at the broccoli, then his brother.

"Huh?! You mean my side! We agreed that it's in my side!" Frederick claims the same, and this is probably what their argument is about.

David walks in after listening to the situation for a while, trying to calm it down, and he succeeded! The brothers decided the matter with a match of rock-paper-scissors, and Frederick won. This means he is responsible for selling the broccoli now.

As a gift for helping them resolve their issue, the brothers gave the Aodh family a big bag of vegetables, for free! It seems they won't need to buy more vegetables for a while, if only it happened everyday!

They then ran into more familiar faces, the cold butcher Jason, the lively old man Steve, the scavenger Benjamin, and much more. Every time, they discuss the matters in the village since the attack, and of course, gossip about Uriah. Everybody has their own ideas of who Uriah is hiding from, and they're all amusing to Farah. She laughs every time the others finish saying what they think is the situation, brightening the ever-busy market by a little.

Finally, they ran into Carter. The family and the mage didn't chat with him much more than with the other villagers, the difference being asking about their daughter's performance and the curriculum. After they bid farewell, it was already noon. So, they walked around, hoping to find a restaurant to remember the day by.

After a while, Barbara hears a sound, an unfamiliar sound.

"New restaurant in town, very delicious! Come try our food out!" The voice was of a teenage boy with a northern accent, coming from the north. After ascertaining the contents, Barbara informs her family and decides to visit the new restaurant in town.

When they arrive, they see a fancy-looking exterior, decorated with statues, and painted in a myriad of colors. This restaurant seems to be a place for the rich people to eat and discuss art in.

"Hello, Mister, Missus, and the little miss. Are you interested in our restaurant? Despite its looks, the food is very much affordable and delicious!" The same boy from earlier, assumed to be a waiter, advertises the restaurant according to his own honest thoughts.

"Well, let's try it out, eh?" David looks at his wife and daughter, who are nodding. He then accepts the teen's offer and asks for recommendations along the way to the table.

Once they arrive, he learns that the restaurant owner came from a northern country, Et, and has brought him along to help him inform the customers.

"Hahaha, how very insightful! Let's see the menu." As he said so, David saw the waiter wave his right hand, then a menu book flew from a window, assumed to be the kitchen, and landed precisely in front of him.